Guppies keep dying!

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Over the past 3 years that Ive kept fish I have always had problems keeping fancy guppies alive. I have kept probably 10 since ...

Over the past 3 years that Ive kept fish I have always had problems keeping fancy guppies alive. I have kept probably 10 since i started the fish keeping hobby all with the same result. what happens is I'll get some males and females and one by one they wind up dead. The longest Ive kept one alive is probably 4 or 5 months. Along with all these guppies i have kept other livebearers and have had little to no problems with them dying ( besides a few mollies here and there) So I'm starting to wonder if Ive just have been having bad luck? or are weak genetics and inbreeding in guppies these days just more prominent than in other livebearers?

As for background on my tank i have a 20 high with an aqua clear 20-40 filter. I have preformed either a 10 or 20 % water change each weak since the beginning and clean the filter and gravel as needed. as far as water parameters ph:7.6-7.8 and nitrate 0-0.5

i keep my guppies at 6.5 they seem to like it a lot.water flow mustn't be too harsh they find it hard to swim.btw are their any signs of sickness before the die?

I didn't really think about the water flow my filter is rated for a 40 gallon and i have a 20 high so i guess there could be something there. and most of the time there are no signs of Illness the only time i noticed something wrong before one died was one of the males i had started to swim irregularly and was more wiggling than swimming and i found him dead the next day.

I might look at temp and diet.
Fancy guppies fair better at temps between 78 and 80 degree's F and need fair amounrt of algae based foods or spirulina flake in their diets.
And yes,,farmed fishes these day's are much weaker strains in my expierience.
Might look for breeder in my area or different store (s).
Might also consider half tablespoon of salt per five gal of water for the guppies and mollies and see if this does not help survival rates.

and I keep my tank at 76 and I do feed them spirulina flakes along with regular fish food. and I would love to find a local breeder to get a good healthy strain from but i wouldn't know where to start to find one. But I guess for now I will stick to platies lol.

That has happened to me before so I will say it has to do with fish possibly being purchased infected with septicemia with no symptoms apparently,possibly internal parasitic infection,possibly it was the filter,but you should be able to tell if it was the filter because the fish would be having a hard time swimming.I also have to agree guppies sold today are not as hardy today as they were 10 years ago.